How to link third party policy initiatives, cross sector partnerships, foundations, non-profit and otherorganizations with the breadth of public service values like representation, efficiency, social equity, andindividual rights.

Leadership Challenge 3A

How to incorporate citizen engagement (planned and spontaneous, including social media) withtraditional local government structures and processes.

Leadership Challenge 3B

How to embrace internal organizational networks while respecting traditional lines of authority.

1

John Nalbandian is a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas; J.Michael Wilkes is city manager, Olathe, Kansas; Amanda Kaufmann is an ICMA Local Government ManagementFellow with the City of Olathe.

2

Bridging the Gap:Leadership Challenges

from the Midwest

John Nalbandian, Michael Wilkes, Amanda Kaufman23

The Context andOverarching

Challenge

The relationship between

political and administrative spheres of actionendures as a central theme inpublic administration

theory and practice. Originally, the relationship wasconceptualizedas a

dichotomy—separatearenas

of action

(Ingraham, 1995).While thisnotion

never accurately describedthe relationship in practice (Moynihan and Ingraham, 2010; Nalbandian, 1999), itfit nicely withnormativetheoretical issues of accountability (elected officials make policyand administrative officialsimplement it, and the one is accountable to the other) and also with the separation of legislative andexecutive powers which characterize thestructure

of federal andstate governments. However,incouncil-manager governmentwhereformal legislative and executivepowers are not separatedintoindependent branches

and the goal of the structure is not checks and balances, the

relationship moreaccuratelyisdescribedas a partnership. In fact,over time we have come to recognizeone of the majorfunctions of the city manageris facilitating

the connectionor partnershipbetween

the twoarenas—sometimes with the manager being a strong, rather independent

forceadvocatingpolicyand protectingadministrative thinking and at other timesmore of an ameliorating force, attempting to balance the twospheres leading to action

(Svara, 2008).

In council-manager government during the past several decades, the relationship betweenpolitics and administration has most often taken the form of dialogue and debate over the citymanager’s role—particularly focusing on his/her involvement in politics/policy making (Nalbandian,

2

JohnNalbandian is a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas; J. J.Michael Wilkes is City Manager, Olathe, Kansas; Amanda Kaufmann is an ICMA Local Government ManagementFellow with the City of Olathe.

3

The authors express their appreciation to the City of Olathe’s leadership team for their time and effort helping todevelop the leadership challenges described in this paper.

3

2000).An unofficial consensus amongexperienced and thoughtfullocal government professionalssuggests that city managers must be political sensitive,aware and involved but without becomingpolitical aligned.Today, stimulated by the fiscal imperatives facing so many local governments, themanager’s roleonce again has gatheredattention, but with a

twist.Contemporary city managers

findtheir “bridging” role taking on more challenges.

The salient questionor debateis less about themanager’s advocacyrole in policy making and more about the basic leadership challenge of simplyconnecting the worlds of

contemporary

politics and administration so reasonable action can occur.

The manager increasingly is being called upon toarticulate

the fundamental relationshipbetweenpolitics and administration and to serve as a “bridge” between these spheres. In this paper, weconceptualize that role as “bridging the gap betweenthe ‘what’ and the ‘how’--what is politicallyacceptableandwhat is administratively feasible.”This imperative—whichprominently shapes thecontemporary manager’s role--becomes in our view the fundamental leadership challenge.

While the “go between” role of the city manager is not unfamiliar, the contemporary challengerequiresadapted

roles and responsibilities because it is occurring in a

dynamiccontext

where the twoarenas(political and administrative)aregrowing farther apart.Insome measure

this increasingseparation is inevitable. Today’s professionals throughout local government functional areas likebudgeting, human resources management, public works, public safety, etc. benefit from increasinglevels of formal professional education, enhanced analytical tools, and continuing technical trainingreinforcing a disciplinary and technical mindset.

Reputations are built and reinforced by one’sprofessional/technical peers within disciplines that extend well beyond a local jurisdiction.

It does not seem a stretch to argue that today’s professional administrators are more capable ofdoing their work than their predecessors

if only because of the tools at their disposal.

In contrast, onecan ask whether today’s local elected officials are more capable of doing their work than their4

predecessors? Today’s jurisdictions are more diverse as are councils, and there is no accepted way ofone generation of elected officials tolearn systematically from their predecessors.

At the same time these trends are taking place,the gap is accentuated bycontemporary politics

with an ideological, uncompromising bentwhichin some placesseems to be filtering down to the locallevel of government. Contemporary politics that is framed by ideologyand driven inlargepart bythesearch for identityis susceptible to the allure of the “confirming mind,” an intellectualpredispositionthat seeks confirmation of its views rather than challenges(Festinger, 1957;Finkelstein, S., Whitehead,J., and A. Campbell, 2008).On the administrative side, enhanced analytical capacity means more data

which reveals more complexity. Problems which formerly might have been seen in relatively simpleterms/options, now gain nuances andequivocal alternatives.

Thus, the simplistic themes and symbolscontained in today’s political storiesand campaignsare undermined by the increasing complexity of thereal world of problem solving—and the gap increases.

Therecent Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the United States credit rating provides poignanttestament to the

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congressand the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would benecessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.

This statement suggests that the administrative feasibility oftheproposed solutions, while appearingpolitically acceptable,

lack credibility.In other words, the policy choice to reduce the debthas a lowprobability of working.The next paragraph speaks to the failure of politics

and the ability tobridge thegap:

5

More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, andpredictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at atime of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisionedwhen we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.4

The challenge we are conveying can be visualized in the following graphic.

New roles and responsibilities are emerging for local government professionals. Thesefacilitativeroles and responsibilities are adaptations designed to “bridge the gap.” City managers findthemselves spending increasing time with elected officials, attempting to understand, to conveyinformation, to cajole, and to convince. But, they also find themselves at times challenged by anadministrative cadre

that1) has become more specialized anddiscipline oriented, and 2)

at times is notready to accept that a reset in local government is occurring.Disciplinary thinking can be reflected in afunction as simple and basic as building inspection. The more complex a building project, the more itmakes sense to employ inspectors who are specialized. But, as we know, specialization comes at a cost,and that cost is seen in coordination and “relationship building” with clients. At the level where the citymanager confronts public problems, specialized thinking and disciplinary responses can be detrimentalto connecting with the political arena.

As the city manager’s role as a “bridge builder” is accentuated,he/she is likely to spend moretime with governing body members than in the past and less time translating political thinking intoadministrative problems to be solved. One consequence is that department heads who

used toearn

respect for “running their departments efficiently

and effectively and producing policy relatedinformation and recommendations” are now expected to move into the gap and to understand theconcept of “political acceptability.”

Once in the gap, they are expected to broaden their mental maps tofocus onproblems likeeconomic development, education, public safety, andquality of life, requiring

an7

interdisciplinary, interdepartmental

approach that

may extendbeyond the organization itself.Thosewho add value are not the ones who simply accept “politics”or who in the past have worked the gap totheir department’s advantage;those who meet challengeone understand

the values tradeoffs that aretaking place, and they increasingly find themselvesinvolved inthe world of politics—which the managercan no longer shield them from—hopefullybecoming sensitized to political dynamics without beingcaptured by them.

While political capture is one risk, the department head working the gap faces another—appearing to his/her staff as abandoning administrative and professional integrity. We can see thatworking the gap is partly talent and art; it remains to be seen whether the skills can be taught.In sum,we have leadership challenge one.

Leadership Challenge Two:

How to link third partypolicy initiatives, cross sector partnerships, non-profits and foundations withthe breadth of public service values like representation, efficiency, equity, and individual rights.

The second challenge associated with thewideninggap is stimulated in part by theerosion oflegitimacy of governing institutions

which enter the gap.In other words, as the gapwidens, third parties can seize an opportunity to exercise influence formerly reserved for thoseoperating within formal governing structures and processes.Theproliferation of third parties

as have terms like “shared services” and “cross sector partnerships.”The concept of“policy entrepreneur”suggests networks of both government and third party interests.Examples of thechallengesof expanded policy networks and independent actorscan be seen in the Kresge Foundation’s

urban renewal

initiative inDetroit. The fundamental question which has been raised by some in Detroitis“who is running our city?”

(Dolan, 2011)

with the implied question “whose values will prevail?”

TheBill andMelinda Gates Foundation’s

efforts

to reform elementary education with an increased emphasis8

on pay for performance andrelated initiatives effectively is

acting as if it were a school board

(Banchero,2011).

The increasing emphasis on third party governance

raises issues of accountability to publicvalues

and government institutions and processes and also increases the challengeofcoordinatingmultiple independent initiatives

in the absence of formal community wide coordinating mechanisms.

Leadership Challenge Three A:

How toincorporate

citizen engagement (planned and spontaneous, including social media) withtraditional local government structures and processes.

In some ways, thethird challengeis a direct consequence of the gap as well as a contributor to it. Thedifficulty of bridging the gap

in part results fromskepticism about the role and effectivenessofgovernmentand a consequent lack of trust and credibilitystimulatesthe

need for local governments togo directly to the original source of legitimacy—citizens themselves. Access to information about localgovernment,community issues, and government

operationshas exploded, enabled by newcommunication technologies and outlets.And every citizen has become a potential blogger/journalist.Some engagement with citizens is planned and some unplanned. One of the greatest challenges isfinding ways tosuccessfully merge new avenuesof engagement

How to embrace internal organizationalnetworks while respecting traditional lines of authority.

Interestingly, while the thrust of engagement has been focused most visibly on citizens, parallel work isoccurring within local government organizations. The effort to bridge the gap between politicalacceptability and administrative feasibility has impacted disciplinary administrative hierarchies. Forsome years we have seen “interdepartmental teams,” “innovation groups,” “employee committees,”9

which are attempts not only to create informalproblem solving groups and temporarystructures withinorganizations, but also initiatives formally to “bridge” disciplinary thinking. It is not farfetched think of atime in the future when the metaphor of the organization as a “community” will become morecommonplace increasingly guiding adjustments in administrative structures and decision makingprocesses and organizational cultures themselves.

Methodology

Utilizing the overarching and three resultant challenges as a framework, we drew upon the experiences

of the Olathe, Kansas, leadership team to develop a more specific leadership agenda. The leadershipteam consistsof department heads, some division directors, and others who operate just below the citymanager level. There are about 25 people on the team in this city of some125,000 which is located inthe Kansas City metropolitan area. Olathe is a suburban communitywith a history of growth. It isaccustomed to professional government, has a stable council, andisregarded among local governmentprofessionals and academicians as an innovator in the region. In the last decade, the city has seensignificant growth in its immigrant population, and like other local jurisdictions has found itself in aretrenchment mode for a couple of years.

To identifytheir challenges, weengaged the leadership team on three occasions. We posed thechallenge presented by the “gap” as the fundamental leadershipframeworkand then suggestedtheyfocus their challengesin terms of altered roles, third party governance,

and engagement. The actualtext of the overarching challenge and three resultant challenges as presentedaboveweredraftedfollowing our consultation

and subsequent communication with the leadership team as well as otherresearch.

Following a brief description of the gap and associatedthreechallenges, we askedsmallgroupsof the leadership teamto think about the departmental, organizational, and communitychallenges they face in the contemporary environment.Oncethey had identified

the challenges, we

10

asked each member of the leadership team to join with another and describe the challenge more fullyand to provide anOlatheexample, if possible.

The authors gathered the data—each piece of data containedthe text of a leadershipchallengeand a contextual elaboration reflecting the Olathe experience. Weattempted to categorize eachchallenge according to either the overarching challenge or one of the three described in the previoussection. Then, we further attempted to categorize according to whether the challenge was experiencedat departmental, organizational, or community level. The last step proved ineffective with too muchuncertainty over which level particular challenges resided. So we eliminated that step.

In our next section, we list the challenges according to our framework.Each is described inmore detail in Appendix

A.

The Leadership Challenges

Overarching Challenge:How tobridge the gap betweenwhat is politically acceptable with what isadministratively feasible where political compromise is unattractive while

administrative practice

andinformation

is becoming more complex.

Overall 1

How do local governments develop long-term, generational thinking, given the presence ofshorter-term politics?

Overall2

How to develop/craft/temper alternatives and recommendations towhat is politicallyacceptable while maintaining administrative and professional integrity and standards?

Overall3

How do communities with a history of rapid growth face the challenge of dealing withexpectations rooted in the past and developing alternatives for future growth

How do emerging roles and responsibilities for bridging the gap affect confidence that electedofficials and administrative staff have in the city manager and department heads?Specifically,as department heads begin to move into the gap and gain more understanding of politicalacceptability will their role undermine confidence of those who work for them? Will credibility

be questioned by elected officials, and what implications

could this have on the level ofconfidence placed in the organization'sleaders?

Roles and Responsibilities2

As top-level employees move further into the gap, how can line staff be empowered to accept amore diverse set of responsibilities?

Roles and

Responsibilities3

As a large percentage of the workforce becomes eligible for retirement, the organizationalchallenge of retaining knowledge andorganizational culture andvalues arises. How do localgovernments face the challenge of developing and implementing avaluesbasedsuccession

What kind of leadership can/should local governments exercise in a third party relationship?

Third Party 2

How should local governments address challenges posed by the presence of third party servicesthat may be in the interest of the greater metropolitan public good, but contrary towhat ispolitically acceptable withinthe jurisdiction?

Third Party 3

How should local governments respond to cultural differences involved with cross-sectorpartnerships?

Third Party 4

How can local governments support a more diverse and capable workforce that isrepresentative of those who are being served when it does not control training and education ofpotential employees?

12

Leadership Challenge Three A: How toincorporatecitizenengagement (planned and spontaneous,including social media) with traditional local government structures and processes.

Community Engagement 1

How can organizations produce valid

and relevant

information, given the prevalence of onlinemedia sources and other easily accessible information sources?

Community Engagement2

There is a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. How should this challenge ofequity be addressed by local governments?

Community Engagement3

Resource and staffing challenges are projected

which may result in services being deliveredbelow expectations. What is the resulting role of elected officials? What is the role of advocatesand social media?

As an organization expands departmental boundaries and becomes more collaborativeinternally throughad hoc teams, committees and other arrangements, the challenge ofassigning responsibility arises. How does added responsibility coalesce with lines of formalresponsibility and authority?

Organizational Engagement 2

In an environment of scarce resources, local governments aremoreat risk of developing a“winner-loser” mentality within their organizations. It is important for the jurisdiction tounderstandhow its culture reinforces or ameliorates this view.

Organizational Engagement 3

Organizationsare faced with the challenge of encouraging risk-taking among employees andincorporating flexibility into formal

job duties, as traditional boundaries shrink. This challenge isintensified by uneasiness caused by the current economic climate, which can cause employeesto retreat to a ‘bunker mentality.’

Organizational Engagement 4

Is there a tipping point at which it is more likely for a non-union organization in a right-to-workstate to be influenced by public sector unions?

Discussion and Conclusions

The concept of the gap resonated with the leadership team as it has with city managers in otherprofessional

development settings. That said, the more an administrative staff member’s work brings13

him/her in contact with council work, the more salient the concept seems to be. In our case, theexercise of developing thechallenges

appeared educational, with

those whofrequentlyinteract with thegoverning body more quickly grasping the relevancy of the concept.

The exercisereflects

and also stimulated

thinking about the city of Olathe’s strategic future. Yetto be determined is if the results of this exercise in one jurisdiction will be helpful to others.And if it ishelpful, what is it in the challenges that carry the most value—is it the framework of the gap? Thespecific challenges? The illustrative applications? The answer to the question is important because itconveys information about the relative value of conceptual tools versus single application case studiesor leadership experiences. We suspect thatconceptual frameworks are more valuable forthe managerand jurisdiction facing broad, undefined problems that will not be solved in one fellswoop (Heifetz,1994).

Therefore, whatwill be of particular interest to usat the Big Ideas conference are

answers tothe following questions:

1)

What inthis

is paper is most transferable acrossjurisdictions?

a)

The framework of the gap?

b)

The specific challenges?

c)

The snapshot descriptions of how Olathe is dealing with some of the challenges?

2)

If the framework turns out to be transferable, what is the role of casestudies as opposed toconceptual work in framing Big Ideas?

14

APPENDIX A LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES DESCRIBED

Overall Challenges

Overall 1

How do local governments

develop long-term, generational thinking, given the presence of

shorter-term politics?

Localgovernments

must recognize the full cost of ownership for its assets; while projects have abeginning, middle, and end they are only a part of a larger ownership model. As resources diminish,local governments

are forced to live off the investments of prior generations with diminishing value,without addressing current needs, or making investments for the needs of future generations. Thismodel is not sustainable and must be changed if a community is to continue to provide a high quality oflife for its citizens. In other words, we need to face the challenge of sending a nuanced message in theage of a “bumper sticker culture.”

The City of Olathe uses a business plan model during its budget process that enables it to focusdepartmentally on long-term thinking. The concept of the business plan is to bring the same long-termapproach to operational issues, as has traditionally been placed on the Capital Improvement Plan. Eachdepartment completes a five-year business plan, which includes an environmental scan, identification ofkey issues and challenges, and strategies for implementation that meet the Council’s goals, and arealigned with the organization’s Balanced Scorecard.

Overall2

How to develop/craft/temper alternatives and recommendations to what is politically acceptablewhile maintaining administrative and professional integrity and standards?

Elected officials are often approached by

constituents who are seeking a particular solution or outcomethat may not be reasonable or feasible from a

City staff standpoint.

Moreover, a general communityview on a particular issue can, at times, be contrary to the view of an elected official whose motives aresometimes unknown.

The dilemma for staff becomes how to develop or craft recommendations oralternatives that temper the political environment without altering a strategic solution to the issue athand.

Olathe is characterized by a conservative governing body elected by a largely conservative electorate.That political reality has led over time

to a governing body that is opposed to any increase in the mill

levyfor general fund operations. While this was not necessarily challenging during the high growth times ofthe early to mid-portion of the last decade, a changing economy has brought that challenge home

because they have been slow to adjust service level expectations. While other communities all around ushave responded to the downturn in the economy with tax increases that option was not in our “tool box”.Staff has had to adjust budget requests to governing body expectations challenging staff’s perception ofcommunity service expectations.

Overall3

How do communities with a history of rapid growth face the challenge of dealing with expectationsrooted in the past and developing alternatives for future growth that respect but are not dictated bythe past?

15

In today’s economic context, government organizations are changing not only the way they deliverservices, but also changing the services they deliver.Service expectations are not only a product ofcontemporary context but also of expectationsnurtured in past experience.Communitiesmustconfront the tension between growth that follows comprehensive plans versus growth determinedsolely by the market place. While a balance may have been reached historically, the new economicenvironment creates uncertainty and challenges previous commitments.

Olathe has the benefit of a new Comprehensive Plan to help address questions regarding future growth.It is important that the plan continue to be used as the policy tool to address scenarios and alternativesfor the future. In other words, the City plans to use the tools it has, and to use them correctly.The issueis how immediate pressures and uncertainty in the future will affect political commitments to the plans.

Challenges to Roles andResponsibilities

Roles and Responsibilities 1

How do emerging roles and responsibilities for bridging the gap affect confidence that elected officialsand administrative staff have in the city manager and department heads? Specifically, as departmentheads begin to move into the gap and gain more understanding of political acceptability will their roleundermine confidence of those who work

for them? Will credibility

be questioned by electedofficials, and what implications could this have on the level of confidence placed in the organization'sleaders?

There are really two different facets to this issue.

One would be the obstacle for the CM when thepolitical will to do something doesn’t meet the professional experience/expertise of the bureaucracy.

Anexample of this would be a Council that will not support a mill levy increase regardless of thedemand/needs/wants as determined by the bureaucracy.

The other would be the obstacle for the CMwhen the political will to do something conflicts with professional experience/expertise of the staff. Anexample of this would be a Council wanting a local preference procurement policy contrary to therecommendations of staff.

Both of these facets create potential obstacles for the CM from both thepolitical side (the will) and the departmental (ability) sides of the gap.

Roles and Responsibilities2

As top-level employees move further into the gap, how can line staff be empowered to accept a morediverse set of responsibilities?

As the city manager and department heads dedicate more time working in political roles, they spendless time on administrative activities; this can result in the creation of an administrative leadership void.Departments must rely more heavily on line staff to continue providing services and accomplishing theirmissions.

The City of Olathe found that engaging and informing its supervisors has solidified a critical link betweendepartment heads and front line employees. The City recognized an information

gap in its internalcommunications, with staff in supervisory roles across the organization not being adequately informed orengaged. To close this gap, Olathe invested in two programs. The first was a partnership with theUniversity of Kansas Public Management Center to provide a customized Supervisory Leadership Trainingprogram to all City staff with supervisory roles. This three-day training incorporated the City’s vision,mission, and values, to establish a shared supervisory framework for supervisors to employ as they16

manage their line staff. The Quarterly Supervisors Forum is Olathe’s second program dedicated todeveloping its supervisors. The forum provides supervisors an opportunity to discuss organizationalissues, and promotes the exchange of information across the organization.

Roles and Responsibilities 3

As a large percentage of the workforce becomes eligible for retirement, the organizational challengeof retaining knowledge and organizational culture and values arises. How do local governments facethe challenge of developing and implementing a valuesbased succession

plan?

As the knowledge and skill expertise of the employment base continues to increase, succession planninghas to shift to something focused not only on the challenge of the meeting the “knowledge” portion ofthe recruitment, but now more importantly, the “cultural” aspect.

In other words, as organizations lookto replace retiring workers, getting people that “fit” with the organizational culture becomes moreimportantthan finding the person with the “right” skill set.

For the most part, talent is easier to findthan someone that fits the culture.

While the loss of organizational knowledge and skills can be a“speed bump” to a high performance organization, the loss of momentum due to the lack of fit withculture and values can set the leadership and direction of the organization back significantly.

The City of Olathe meets this challenge from twodirections.

The first is in recruitment from outside theorganization.

When recruiting from outside, we first try to convey our values and our culture throughour job announcements thereby giving the potential applicant an idea of the culture that they would becoming into

(See Appendix B for a recent job announcement).

During the selection process, we useseveral different teams to interview the candidate, giving us several different perspectives on“fit”.

Finally, we have several different tools we use, such as the Kolbe assessment, that helps us matchup “best fit” for

the positions that we are looking for.

In terms ofnurturing talent internally, we have implementedan

Emerging Leaders Program.

Two sets ofemployees are identified for this program: those that might assume a key leadership role in theorganization within five years, and those that may assume key leadership positions beyond a five-yearperiod.

This program is intended to prepare these employees in previously identified leadershipcompetencies.

The City also

invests in its emerging leaders through a Mentor Program, providingtargeted development to certain individuals, by pairing them with mentors within theorganization.

Success of this program depends upon retention of the most promising employees.

Third Party Challenges

Third Party 1

What kind of leadership can/shouldlocal governments exercisein a third party relationship?

When contracting for services with a third party, a local government must determine how

muchflexibility to permit the third party and the level of accountability. Political predispositions may favorcontracting out, and calculated decisions must be made regarding the utilization of private contractorsto perform technical work when staff may already have the technical competency to do that work, orwhen thelocal governmentmay have traditionally provided those services. Local governments mustalso be cognizant of the political dynamics involved when considering the abandonment of certainservices, with theassumption butnot guaranteethat a non-profit provider will step in to fill that serviceneed. Local governments must also be concerned with the ability of non-profit organizations to17

demonstrate the capacity to provide services, while also assessing what the jurisdiction’s role should bein cultivating the capacity and development of thethird party provider.

The City of Olathe contracts with the Olathe Chamber of Commerce for economic development andConvention and Visitor's Bureau services.

Citywide transient guest tax is remitted to the Chamber as partof the annual budget process so that they may perform these services on the City’s behalf. The newcontract, put into place this year, requires enhanced reporting, performance measurement, andaccountability. The City must ensure the Chamber meets these requirements; to do this, it is importantfor the City to understand the Chamber’s needs for training, its technological capacities, and its availablestaff resources. The City must also be cognizant of how implementation of these requirements willimpact future budgets and how to set reasonable goals to measure the Chamber’s

performance insuccessfully achieving the City Council's service objectives.

Third Party 2

How should local governments address challenges posed by the presence of third party services thatmay be in the interest of the greater metropolitan public good, but contrary to what is politicallyacceptable withinthe jurisdiction?

Local governments may be providing services that are also provided by other non-profit or privateorganizations in the samemetro area. The challenge facing local governments is to understand whethera duplication of service exists, and

if so, to determine whether the level of service

that can efficiently beprovided metro wide through an economy of scale, should beaccepted inan individual jurisdictionwhich may actually have

higher service expectations.Not joining the metropolitan consortium mayhave political consequences for the jurisdiction in the future.

The City of Olathe is the only municipality in Johnson County that provides refuse and recycling servicesin-house. The other Johnson County municipalities are under an agreement forprovision oftheseservices by private sector providers. The City experiences efficiencies in its refuse and recycling servicesand does not foresee a benefit

in getting out of the business

and turning to a private provider. While athird partyoptionis not aviablesolution for Olathe, it works well for the other municipalities within theCounty.An issue could be the perception of Olathe as a “team player” in the metro area.

Third Party 3

How should local governments respond to cultural differences involved with cross-sectorpartnerships?

The goals and objectives of the partners are not always what they seem to be and local governmentsmust be able to adjust and adapt their own goals in order to meet the necessary "win-win" that helps alltoadvance.

Other groups may also come along and take advantage of an existing partnership toadvance their own agendas.

Leadershipwithin the jurisdictionmust decide how such issues areaddressed; arelate comersallowed to "piggy-back," and possibly take

undue credit or should the localjurisdiction

push back?

TheCity of Olathe’s governing body

had goals to create higher quality, higher wage jobs in thecommunity, and to create opportunities for higher education. To meet these goals, the City developed apartnership with Kansas State University and the Kansas Bio-Science Authority to provide a place wherethe world’s foremost academic minds in the fields of animal health and food safety could partner withthe State agency responsible for promoting the

bio-sciences in Kansas. The City donated 100 acres of18

land (divided between the two groups) for the advancement of these goals. Both agencies are nowoperating buildings on this land, but manyparties not part of the original partnership have sought toadvance their own interests

opportunistically and not necessarily to the direct advancement of thepartners’ goals. Many issues have arisen potentially affecting the original partnership. The leadershipchallenge is trying to determine whether or not toentertain late entry initiatives and how to evaluatetheir value in light of the original goals.

Third Party 4

How can local governments support a more diverse and capable workforce that is representative ofthose who are being served

when it does not

control training and education of potential employees?

In many service areas, having staff that is representative of the community it serves is vital. However,creating a departmental workforce that is prepared and capable with a similar demographiccomposition as those it serves is a challenge. Traditional job requirements and preparatory educationmay limit access to a diverse applicant pool. The areas of Public Safety and Parks and Recreation, wherestaff interact directly with the public, could benefit in particular from having such representation.Thechallenge is that the city is not responsible for workforce development and must rely on educationalprograms it has no control over.

The City of Olathe’s Fire Department is only experiencing turnover through retirements. The typicalhiring requirements demand qualifications that are obtained from college-level programs; however,these programs are not producing a diverse pool of candidates. This hiring model, used in many mid-sized suburban municipalities, places the financial burden of preparation on the candidate, rather thanthe municipality—this lower-cost model can be particularly attractive when faced with limited funding.However, it may not result in the diverse applicant pool desired.

Engagement Challenges

Community Engagement 1

How can organizations produce valid and relevant information, given the prevalence of online mediasources and other easily accessible information sources?

Those seeking to educate themselves on a topic find a breadth and depth of information that wasimpossible to compile only a decade ago. The challenge inreviewing

the information available isdiscerning its validity and quality. In an era that prides itself on data-driven decisions,

much of theinformationmost easilyavailable via the internet is not always

factual, relevant and reliable.Amidstcommunication

channelslike

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube,local

governments must establish apresence asthe

reputable and credible source.Local governments must also be prepared for thepotential challenge of a governing board

influencedby federally charged political ideologies.

The City of Olathe approaches the challenge of focusing community discussion

on relevant, reliable datainvarious ways. The City uses both an annual citizen perception survey called DirectionFinder and theBalanced Scorecard as performance metric systems.

Both of these tools are reported to council andcommunity annually andresultsare included on the city’s website

(http://www.olatheks.org/Council/Accountability).

The utilization of both of these tools allows for datadriven policy debates and priority setting. Citizens are given the opportunity with these tools to let theirvoice be heard in terms of how money is spent and what the priorities of the community are.

Anexample of data based conversation with citizens is found in our snow operations efforts this past19

winter.

DirectionFinder

citizen survey results show that snow removal is a

priority item in thecommunity.Based on estimates of more snow fall during the winter, we used social media and ourwebsite to inform citizens of what our policies and practices would be with regard to snow removal inneighborhoods as well as arterial streets.

And, at the start of winter, we put into place a globalpositioning based system that allowed citizens to view our snow plow trucks real-time on-line

and toestimate howlong it would be until snow in front of their driveway would be removed.

Community Engagement 2

There is a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. How should this challenge of equity beaddressed by local governments?

Local governments facethe challenge of adapting to the ever-changing needs of its citizens, whilecontinuing to offer core services. Additional problems arise in determining what those core services aretoday and what they will be in the future, and whether the services fill a

void or can be more effectivelydelivered by an outside

organization. A growing socio-economic gap within the communityhasmaterialized in many ways over the past several years--increased code enforcement demands, taxdelinquency, non-payment of special

assessments, and rampant foreclosures. It is important forrelationships to be forged that address and respond to such issues in a timely, systematic, and fairmanner. Populations that have barriers to technology access strengthen this growing gap between thehaves and the have-nots. While it may be convenient for organizations to utilize social media, equityproblems result.

The gap between the haves and the have-nots in the City of Olathe is evident in its central core. Thedemographics of this area are fairly different than those in the surrounding, more suburban, portions ofthe City. The core is comprised of older, more rooted generations of citizens that often prefer alternativemethods of communication. The residential and commercial building

stock of the central core is alsomuch older than that of the surrounding areas of the City.

Community Engagement3

Resource and staffing challenges are projected which may result in services being delivered belowexpectations. What is the resulting role of elected officials? What is the role of advocates and socialmedia?

Reduced staffing

and resource

levels mayresult in services not meeting citizen expectations.The role ofthe elected officials will be to continually monitor the feedback of thosethey serve.

Not only must theymonitor it but they need to be proactive in receiving it.

Many times the average citizen may not becomevocal until it impacts them personally.

For instance, an elderly couple with no children may not beimpacted by the reduced mowing of city parks since they don’t use the parks; however, a younger familymoving into the same neighborhood may see parks that are not kept up and assume that the city is nottaking care of basic services important to them.

Elected Officials are under pressures that they did notexperience before, and they mayfeel the need to get deeper and deeper into the daily operations

of citywork due partly

to the feedback they receive.

This then creates the elected officials becoming part ofdaily decision making when in the past it was the City managers and department directors making thesesame decisions.

In terms of advocates and social media,in Olathethese voices seem to be heard much more than

before,especially if advocates have financial and political resources.

Social media and advocates also do nothave some of the imposed filters that elected officials and city employees must adhere to.

Legitimate20

concerns about service delivery can andare being raised; the issue is whether responses will reflectconsistency or political favoritism which has not been a part of our culture.

Organizational Engagement 1

As an organizationexpands departmental boundaries

and becomes more collaborative internally

through ad hoc teams, committees and other arrangements, the challenge of assigning responsibilityarises. How does added responsibility coalesce with lines of formal responsibility and authority?

Domains of exclusivity lead to fragmentation across the organization. Such domains do not lendthemselves to a collaborative environment. As organizations become more collaborative,formallines ofresponsibility can become blurry. It is important for project leaders to be skilled at facilitation, effectiveat communication, and able to understand the relationship between theinfluence in networkedarrangements and influence through position power.Project team members must be open-minded,capable of consensus, and share a common goal.

With the

retirement of the directors of public works and municipal services the city manager waspresented with an opportunity toconsolidate

two departments. While the result would save significantmoney,the cultures of the two departments were very different, and they were not characterized bycollaboration within departments, let alone between the two departments.

A new Director that fit thedesired organizational culture was hired to consolidate the departments, blend the cultures and buildcollaboration throughout the department.

One of the keys to this effort was the way the new directorapproached this task. Employing a process that lasted over a year, the director utilized input fromdepartmentalstaff and outside stakeholders to organize the new department based on broad skills-based teams along with a “matrix-based” or cross-functional team responsible for strategic thinking,innovation, employee development and other functions across the “silo”delineations of thedepartment.

The intent is to allow a very large, complex, multi-functioned department to be nimble in itsreaction time for change and decision-making.

Organizational Engagement 2

In an environment of scarce resources, local governments are more at risk of developing a “winner-loser” mentality within their organizations. It is important for the jurisdiction to understand how itsculture reinforces or ameliorates this view.

It is important that an effective leadership model is inplace within

the organization

to appropriatelyaddress the challenge of the “winner-loser” mentality.This model does not develop overnight, butrather is anchored in the department’s culture. Leadership which stresses collaboration acrossdepartments rather thandefining

issues according to departmental boundaries can ameliorate thepermanence of the win/lose mentality.The “department head winner” vs. “department head loser”perception results from a transactional leadership model, defined by what thedepartment headreceives in resources from the city manager, and where the department’s sense of worth comes fromhierarchical approval.

The City of Olathe works to avoid the “winner-loser” mentality by providing transparency in its decision-making. The City utilizes data collected from Direction

Finder, its annual citizen satisfaction survey, toinform decisions.

The cityhas longitudinal data which provides perspective on citizen satisfaction, and ithas become common for policy discussions to result from an analysis of the survey results. Connectingpolicy decisions and then budget decisions to the surveyresultsprovides a data based decision making21

approach to budgeting

which can affect the perception that some departments are favored by the citymanager.

Organizational Engagement 3

Organizations are faced with the challenge of encouraging risk-taking among employeesandincorporating flexibility into formal

job duties as traditional boundaries shrink. This challenge isintensified by uneasiness caused by the current economic climate, which can cause employees toretreat to a ‘bunker mentality.’

As the city manager and department heads move upward to bridge the gap between the administrativeand political worlds, supervisory and line staff in the organization are given more latitude in fulfillingtheir job duties. However, the unstable economic climate, where layoffs are not uncommon,

is a barrierto staff takinginitiative and risking failure.At a time when innovation is most needed, leaders must finda way to encourage staff to think creatively and take risks.

The City of Olathe experienced a major reduction in its force—approximately 17% since 2008. Manyremaining staff throughout the organization—both vertically and horizontally, have attempted to staybelow the radar and not take risks that they feel may jeopardize their job security. As an example, thePolice Department had 15 positions eliminated when dispatch was consolidated and transferred to theSheriff’s Department. Thisraised concern amongother employees, particularly in the civilian ranks,about the security of their respective positions. Although several of the remaining employees inheritednew responsibilities after the consolidation, the feeling of uneasiness and the fear of making mistakesthat could bring them negativeattention

was still present. Olathe wants to face this challenge byfocusing on results from an organizational perspective; it wants to promote a culture, (with lessrestrictive job guides), that rewards creative and innovative thinking that contributes to the excellentprovision of service and the accomplishment of organizational goals. The challenge is whetherorganizational actions towards these ends can overcome issues of security for employees.

Organizational Engagement 4

Is there a tipping point at which it is more likely for a non-union organization in a right-to-work stateto be influenced by public sector unions?

If we assume that the current economic climate has fostered the perception among many public sectoremployees (both in public safety positions and in general civil service positions) that their voices are notbeing heard by their administrative and political leaders and that their rights and entitlements ofemployment are being eroded, does this discontent foster an environment conducive to theproliferation of unions in right to work states? How do the political dynamics change withindepartments, among administrative leadership, and with elected officials when certain employees forma union? How do newly unionized employees relate to their non-union colleagues, especially if, forexample, firefighters working for a city unionize while police officers donot?

Over the last two decades, Olathe has seen both of its public safety departments (police and fire) have arise and then fall in union-forming activities in response to what line-level employees perceived as unfairdiscipline practices and/or a lack

of competitive benefits and salary. These uprisings have resulted inpicketing in front of city hall and at council meetings. The most significant challenge for leadership ismanaging these employees’ entitlement mentality while still maintaining and retaining theadministration’s rights and obligations to develop work rules, regulations and policies to effectivelyprovide public services.

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APPENDIX B OLATHE, KANSAS, VALUES-BASED JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Resource Management Director

Employer: Olathe, City of

Title: Resource Management Director

Description: At the City of Olathe, Kansas we are “Setting the Standard for Excellence in Public Service”and we have the results and the awards to prove it! We have received national recognition foreverything from

Legacy and Advocacy awards, to LEED Certifications and Certificates of Excellence inFinancial Reporting. Our customer service results lead the public sector, and our city has beenrecognized by Money magazine in 2008 as a “best place to live”.

Our award-winning Resource Management department drives organizational progress throughinnovative management of people, finances and policies. Through the efforts of this talented team wereceived the highest honor given to a city government for its efforts in performance measurement andmanagement with the 2011 ICMA CPM Certificate of Excellence. Our highly successful Wellness Programenjoys a 5:1 ROI and has become a model for programs nationwide, earning the City of Olathe mentionin the 2011 Fast Cities issue of Fast Company magazine.

To continue this trend of excellence, we are recruiting for a Director of Resource Management. In thisrole, you will lead a team in developing and implementing an innovative business plan that optimizesour resources. Your scopewill include accounting, budget, procurement, human resources, riskmanagement and the city clerk’s office. You will also collaborate with the City’s Leadership Team tomake strategic visionary decisions that ensure Olathe continues to lead the nation in values-drivenperformance.

If our values of customer service, learning, communication, teamwork and leadership through servicealign with yours, and you have proven success in leading a team of professionals to ever higher levels ofperformance, we would like to speak with you!

Experience: At least 10 years of experience in municipal government, including at least 7 yearsadministrative and/or supervisory responsibility, and demonstrated political acumen.

Education: Masters Degree or above from an accredited college or university with major course work inFinance, Human Resources, Business, Public Administration, or related field. Proven ability to managehuman resources, finance, accounting, budgeting, risk management, procurement and the city clerk’soffice directly or through subordinate managers.

We offer a highly competitive total compensation package and opportunities for your growth anddevelopment.